Fifth

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Global Delivery of Five Sigma

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SaaS software solution for Insurance companies (Claims Management System)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Fifth to accomplish?

• Expedite our developing power and capacity
• Bring expertise and handling Professional Services Dev tasks, such as migrations, integrations, Change Requests of customers (custom work)
• Effective cost management (offshore outsource)

SOLUTION

How did you find Fifth?

Referral

Why did you select Fifth over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fits our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Fifth were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Migration of customer legacy data into the new system they bought from us 
• Integration with customer 3rd parties system based on existing API's 
• Support customers tech\dev people with required integrations 
• Carrying out custom work (Change Request) 
• Testing and bug fixes of Professional Services dev work

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Meet delivery agreed timelines 
• Meet estimated effort (man days) 
• Quality delivery 
• Customer satisfaction and sign off

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, deliverable were provided on time. Ability to overcome obstacles and compensate in dedication and extra hours (if needed). Responded great to our needs by being committed and dedicated, with good and healthy ongoing communication

What was your primary form of communication with Fifth?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were very passionate about the work they are doing. They were also committed to the company goals. Were really part of the team without being treated (and reacted) as "outsource".

Are there any areas for improvement or something Fifth could have done differently?

Working fully remote is always a challenge. An on-site visit of the team during this 1 year helped a lot with the collaboration and working relations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a software planning company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

We worked, unsuccessfully, with a different developer to build a working prototype for our business idea. This failure led us to look to hire a new service provider to complete the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fifth developed the front- and backend of our web solution from scratch. It’s very visual and intuitive, featuring drag-and-drop capabilities for employees as well as a calendar for scheduling. The backend is organized based on the specifications we gave.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with Aram (Co-Founder & CEO), but our main point of contact was the project manager who oversaw a team of 4–8 people.

How did you come to work with Fifth?

We had previously worked with the founder of Fifth. When we needed developers for this project, we reached out to him. They presented a good proposal, which we accepted.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2017–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were pleased with the development they completed in the first phase of the project. It’s a prototype so it’s raw in terms of development, but we were satisfied.

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was outstanding. Fifth is accommodating and flexible, and their response time was very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a young, dynamic team who contributed ideas to the project and saw long-term value in it. They really understood our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend them for similar projects to mine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was thr founder and CEO of Craftd, a B2C LawTech platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fifth?

Fifth managed the entire build as well as the porject management aspects of the build and assisted in ideation, and suggested appropriate tools and approaches.

What were your goals for this project?

A heavily UX focused, user friendly platform, with clear dashboards and menus, capable of turning a questionnaire into a legal document using WebMerge.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by another supplier we were using.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed developed and delivered the full back and front end, with UX, design, security, chat features, automation, dashboard, payment gateways, etc.

What was the team composition?

We had a variable team of around 7 people at any given time across front end, back, end, design/UK and project management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They build the entire business for us!

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

While Fifth prefer not to work according to agile, they are excellent project managers, with good communication skills and excellent initiative. They need almost no external management to progress projects and easily identify the key issues to raise to the business team. We communicated on Slack and using Trello.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

See above - ther ability to work well without micro-management.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't think so! They were excellent and the code (later reviewed by various senior members of Google) was deemed to be clean, scalable and well written.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Whiteparts, an in-home appliance repair company. We also have an online store that offers individual appliance repair parts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

We were looking for a partner to maintain our e-commerce platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use Magento as an e-commerce platform, and the Fifth team is responsible for maintaining it and implementing updates. The team integrates small add-ons to the existing system, as well as development that allows us to track sales.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about four different people. 

How did you come to work with Fifth?

We originally found Fifth after conducting an online search. We ran some test assignments, and the team performed well, so we decided to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000 – $200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our engagement in March 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Fifth’s work has been really well-received by our internal team. Their deliverables function well and are provided quickly and consistently. 

Along the way, the team has always provided us with all the information we need to move the project forward.

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

Our communication has been excellent, and our two teams are well-aligned. We use Slack for communication, and track progress on Trello. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fifth offers an extremely hard-working team. They’re flexible and highly engaged with the project. The team takes excellent care of their clients; we’ve had a great experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve run into some challenges with navigating the language barrier between our teams, but we’ve overcome them with various methods of communication.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very specific with what you need, and explain your goals to the best of your ability.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Contiq Inc. We are an enterprise machine-learning sales company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

They’re critical to our company. They’re part and parcel of our engineering team. They’re responsible for building the frontend of our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a web product with integrations to Outlook and PowerPoint. They’re responsible for building all integrations and web products. The site has multiple interactions, pages, and is mobile ready. They helped make it a premium product, developing the frontend in time for it to be sent out to clients.

They built the sign-up and onboarding experience. They helped with connecting Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, and more. We enabled salespeople to create pitches and edit decks on our platform, measuring how much time was spent on each.

They used Angular.js. For plugins, they used JavaScript. Finally, they used Microsoft APIs.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people, three frontend engineers and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Fifth?

I found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was between $250,000 and $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in April 2017 and have been working together since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality of the work has been excellent. Since we launched in January of this year, we’ve had over 800 signups and have received fantastic feedback. We’re continuing to improve the product and they’re using the feedback to make positive changes to the project.

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent, I would give them the highest marks. They’re really strong engineers who have proposed fantastic suggestions. They work fast. We use Jira and Excel to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their speed is impressive. Both in responding and getting things done. They’re doing a great job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re doing a great job, but they could do more work on architecture.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just go for it. It’s hard to find good people like them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called E-Gear. It’s a company that sells and resells software products in the Nordic countries, which include Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

Our company was five people and none of us possessed technical skills.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fifth’s task was to create our e-commerce website. We asked their team for advice on how the system should run, so they recommended Magento for our platform. In the beginning, we used their services on a month to month basis. Eventually, we hired them full time for the purpose of maintaining our existing sites and creating new platforms.

At first, we only operated in Denmark so their team created a standard solution. When we wanted to expand into Norway and Sweden, their team created a custom custom-built solution using Magento plug-ins. They built a custom solution with regard to payment solutions because we had challenges. Later on, they built an automatic process for sending orders of software licenses to clients, which replaced our manual process. Since Fifth built our tech, we continue to use their services for maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We collaborated with four people from Fifth including Aram (Co-Founder and CEO) and Vahe (Co-Founder and CTO).

How did you come to work with Fifth?

We met Aram at a co-working space where he and his partner approached us. We completed test projects but, at the time, Aram hadn’t established Fifth. He did well, so we sent him more and more projects. Eventually, we decided to hire him on a full-time basis.

How much did you invest in this project?

Overall, we spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Aram in 2015 but Fifth wasn’t founded yet. We ended the full-time contract in October 2019, but Fifth maintains our platforms.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our success metrics were simple because we aren’t technical. The measurement of success was whether or not the system worked. Their work was received well by our team. Almost everything that their team made was to our satisfaction. When any components didn’t meet our standards, their team made amendments.  

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team created a Trello board for us because we didn’t know about it originally. We posted all of the assignments and measured our spend on the platform. It was simple but it worked.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fifth basically worked around the clock. Any time of the day, we could contact their team. If we had an issue such as a server breakdown, I could connect with Aram and his team took care of it. Their flexibility and dedication to solving issues quickly impressed us from the beginning. That’s why we stuck with them for so long.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We spent time on establishing effective communication because we’re not a technical team. It wasn’t a big problem but that miscommunication led to misunderstandings. Their team could improve their way of relaying technical information. That would save time on both sides.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give the partnership time because there are cultural differences when working with offshore teams.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder & CEO of a video sharing platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

We were looking to hire iOS developers to develop a mobile video-streaming application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing the mobile application and UI from our ideas and designs. Their team is also setting up our server, as well. One of the features they’re implementing is cloud sharing for the videos. 

What is the team composition?

There are four full-time people working on the project including a project manager, an iOS engineer, a backend developer, and a QA person. At different times, more people work on the project, too. 

How did you come to work with Fifth?

They were recommended by a friend. I chose them because I was happy with their pricing and quality.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in April 2018 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Though the product isn’t launched yet, they bring so much to the project with their skills and technical knowledge. They’re able to find solutions for our UX/UI, too. The feedback from them has been amazing on the quality of the work. 

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

They are doing a good job managing the project. We use tools to track the project status and have video conference calls 2–3 times per week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality and pricing are very good. I don’t think there’s better quality at this price point.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything to improve right now. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Present your vision clearly and in detail at the beginning of the project— this is important when hiring any company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Xin Performance delivers hospitality-based technology to hotel chains and casinos. I am the founder and managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

We wanted to reach a higher level of coding and system architecture. We had been using a development partner previously, and there were limitations on their quality and ability to deliver. Ultimately, we wanted to continue to expand our proposition and bring more scale to it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We rebuilt our entire app over a 6-7 month period. The architecture and code have been custom-built by them. We used our existing platform as a wireframe to build the new platform, which is both web and mobile-based

Since then, they’ve been maintaining and developing the platform. Now, they’re working on a new release that will elevate the current project further. Everything is built on a Laravel framework in PHP. 

What is the team composition?

There’s a dedicated team of about 7-8 people between developers, product managers, QA, and designers that are dedicated to us and have worked on the product from the beginning.

How did you come to work with Fifth?

I ended up hiring a consultant to evaluate the existing system and recommend where we needed to go to get our objectives done. One of those people connected me with Arem (Co-Founder & CEO, Fifth). 

We had several discussions with Fifth, and I found that Arem and I see eye-to-eye. They are a young company looking for a challenge, and our product is a bit of a monster. So, it was mutually beneficial because they got to use their expertise while taking on a bit of a challenge. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent anywhere from about $350,000 to $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May of 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality of the code that comes out of Fifth is very, very good. We have external QAs in place to review code, and our own technology team of developers ensures the code is within our guidelines.

They’ll write one line of code where others tend to write 5–10. So, for the QA, we mainly focus on the UX and how they are integrating and maintaining the servers. We do have metrics in terms of timelines, but those have been a challenge as requirements and other things change. 

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

We integrate with Jira for the product they’re working on. Everything, including the Scrum framework, is all tracked through Jira (e.g. requirements, backlog, and maintenance). That process has been working relatively well.

In the last year, they shifted their agile framework from a management perspective to ensure they could meet the needs of the project. While there were pain points in that transition, they really studied, presented, and adopted it well. The new agile framework has ended up as a successful next stage in our business relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very, very good at the actual development function. They’re also very engaged. Their project manager has taken the time to take ownership of the project, which has helped us extensively. They’re able to think through solutions as a product owner rather than just a development partner. 

They take the effort to understand our clients, which is extremely important to me. While they don’t have much experience in our industry, they take the time to think through the UX.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have to continue to make an effort to understand our users well and work better within certain timeframes. We also need to get better at understanding what they need in order to get their job done well so we can facilitate it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are very, very competent in terms of the quality of the work. They will work hard to build a meaningful team around the project. But, you need to take the time to build your requirements and wireframes as well. When we started, we had just an idea that we hoped to refine throughout the process. But, I realized it would be better to have my requirements early on.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and head of creative and website aspects for a graphic design company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

We wanted to create an online SaaS-based customizer for wedding invitations. Initially, we wanted an MVP for users to completely customize their invitations; color, design, text, religious symbols, and so on. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fifth developed our MVP for us. They began with full wireframing of the entire system, admin portion, using our base designs to create the software. On the backend, they gave us a CMS that allowed us to build our designs directly in the system as well as produce a print-ready file of the user’s customized product, cutting out a lot of the manual labor required as a designer.

The team worked in Laravel and JavaScript to build the back-end of our platform, as well as some other technologies. They also created the frontend of our site in WordPress, using some of the designs we provided for key screens.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with Aram (Co-Founder & CEO, Fifth) throughout the entire project. Our current team manager is Mariam (Frontend Developer, Fifth). We also briefly dealt with Hovhannes, (Co-Founder, Fifth) during frontend development. Other members of the team were brought in on an as-needed basis.

How did you come to work with Fifth?

They were referred to us by a user-experience designer that had worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from May 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The product Fifth built is great. We have a working tool that we need to get into the hands of those who want it. We haven’t seen great results for metrics yet as we are just heading into a marketing phase.

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

We went through several project managers over the course of the project, so it was better at times than others. 

Our teams communicated via Slack, WhatsApp, and email. They were generally very responsive. For example, recently our entire store went down during an update, and when we messaged them and they immediately began to fix it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stuck with us throughout and delivered what they promised. They are far superior to other development teams we have worked with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only critique I have is that their estimation of timeline and budget could use some work. Our timeline was greatly underestimated. Overall, it was pretty good. However, we would appreciate more transparency.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re great. I would hire them again in a heartbeat.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an app that operates as a coffee marketplace. Siply allows coffeeshops to register as vendors, and users can order their drinks through the app for a discount.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fifth?

I had built myself an MVP and wanted to engage a company to turn that into a scalable product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fifth constructed the entire app. I collaborated with the project manager, Nelly (Project Manager, Fifth) at every stage of development. We worked through different concepts until we’d created a bible of process documentation.

They then launched into backend development by creating a database. They created an admin panel and a provisioning system for the frontend. They constructed native iOS and Android apps. They provided supplementary services like developing a marketing campaign website to encourage loyalty programs. Their technical work allowed me to focus on the sales side of things.

What is the team composition?

I worked with around seven people, although the team size fluctuated with changes in scope.

How did you come to work with Fifth?

I interviewed 19 different development companies before choosing Fifth. After I expressed my goals and vision, their response was far better than that of anybody I’d spoken with.

How much have you invested with them?

I think we’ve spent over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working together in December 2017, and it’s an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve been awesome; they’ve exceeded expectations with regards to every task. I’ve worked on numerous projects over 20 years, and I can attest to their quality. The project manager gave me ideas for app features that I hadn’t even thought of before. The quality of their work is excellent, which I found to be quite surprising in working with an offshore company.

How did Fifth perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the project by overseeing the hours worked and adherence to budget. I’m pretty flexible because large projects inevitably require some timelines to stretch. They’re available practically 24 hours a day; I’ve had phone calls with Nelly at 4 or 5 in the morning just because it was convenient for me. They’re clearly dedicated to the project—even demonstrating it during off-hours—which has been really great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They go above and beyond the immediate call of duty. Instead of treating it as “just a project,” they become invested in your success. It’s truly as if they’re an extension of your team. I really can’t say enough good things about these guys.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, no really. Nothing really stands out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be meticulous with your initial documentation to clearly convey your wants and requirements. That way, you can avoid a discrepancy in expectations. Having said that, they’re great about asking questions.